One of the biggest complaints in the last patch was the low carry diversity. The meta was dominated by Luna, Medusa and Dragon Knight — the flash-farming, scaling trio. Despite only getting a smaller letter patch, we are ecstatic to highlight that the position one meta is currently in a much healthier place, with several notable carries making it back into the meta.
Juggernaut
Ever since the changes to Blade Fury, which now scales with attack speed, a lot of players started experimenting with a 
Mjollnir Juggernaut, with relative success. That made sense — Juggernaut theoretically could be a threat with both his right-clicks and his first ability, making him a versatile all-purpose damage-dealer.
This doesn’t work anymore, or rather it doesn’t work as well as the good old 
Battle Fury build with the Bladeform facet. Having the ability to farm faster and having more sustain seems strictly superior in the current, slower meta. So while you do maximize your damage output with a Mjollnir and 
Power Treads, the utility, MS and Armor you get from the 
Phase Boots into Battlefury is stronger.
Getting trinkets and magic wand are a given, still, though most high level players no longer go for double 
Wraith Band, instead trying to get Battlefury as soon as possible and then transitioning into 
Yasha and its derivative. One of the most common continuation of this build is an 
Aghanim’s Scepter for the added gap-closer, but we also frequently see tempo plays with a 
Butterfly or some techy items like 
Eye of Skadi or 
Monkey King Bar.
Make sure that come late game, you have your 
Blink Dagger and possibly 
Nullifier at the ready. The hero is still heavily countered by many various defensive options, so Nullifier is almost mandatory in every single game. Between 
Ogre Magi and 
Lich dominating the support meta it is never a bad option.
Lifestealer
Another “built-in debuff immunity” hero who is making a comeback. While we are partial to the Unfettered facet, the good old Rage is still a better idea in most games, outside of maybe 
Bane or 
Beastmaster matchups.
Currently Lifestealer is very much a 
Radiance-rush hero. Get a 
Bracer, maybe an 
Orb of Corrosion, if it can guarantee you a kill or two, finish your Phase Boots and just rush a pre-minute 15 Radiance for the extra farming speed and some teamfight survivability.
While 
Armlet of Mordiggian is a very high value pick-up on the hero, it feels a bit too aggressive in the current meta and is best reserved for games where you are feeling pressured across the map and you might need to join fights earlier than the 15-minute mark. Instead, going for 
Sange and Yasha and finishing with an Aghanim’s Scepter should be considered a default.
The Disarm on the Aghanim’s can be extremely powerful in almost every single game: “turning off” an enemy carry for five seconds and wasting their BKB duration is incredibly demoralising to the enemy team, and it also has the added benefit of waiting out your Rage cooldown.
Also don’t underestimate the 
Aghanim’s Shard on the hero. It can be a great source of sustain for your whole team in a teamfight and many players still underestimate how much HP it can provide.
Wraith King
Truth be told, the hero still feels like he is one buff away from being relevant in the higher level brackets. However, in your average pubs he should work wonders — having a second life is an undeniable boon against teams with slightly worse target prioritisation.
For similar reasons we feel Bone Guard facet should also be the default one. It is very tough to deal with the Skeletons and more often than not they will zone out and sometimes even outright kill enemy supports. Naturally don’t go this facet versus heroes like 
Sand King, but in most games getting your Skellies to accelerate early game into a Radiance is an excellent play.
Skellies also pair nicely with the currently popular Lich. The latter is often mana-starved, especially in games where multiple players need Mangoes for sustain, but with the constant army of Skeletons spawning, dying and spawning again it becomes a lot less of an issue. It certainly doesn’t hurt that it makes for one of the most oppressive and powerful lanes.
Finally, while going late might not necessarily be the best idea for the hero, since he doesn’t scale as well as most Agility hard carries, it is not as bad as some players might assume. The late Aghanim’s upgrade on the hero can allow for some very potent hail mary plays, frequently securing a teamfight draw at the very least.
Closing thoughts
The carry meta shake up is certainly fun to watch: the resurgence of some heroes leads to a resurgence of other heroes in other roles, jump-starting and accelerating the meta-cycle. For a patch released back in July this is great — the game feels refreshed, even though we are definitely hoping for something major early next year.
For now, though, it is hard to complain and there is definitely quite a lot to explore further. What are your thoughts on the matter and do you have any other hidden gems for the current meta that you are willing to share?
